gethsemane

Coordinates: 31°46′46″N 35°14′25″E / 31.779402°N 35.240197°E / 31.779402; 35.240197

Garden of Gethsemane.

Church of All Nations.

Gethsemane (Greek ΓεσΘημανι, Gesthēmani 'Hebrew:גת שמנים, Aramaic גת שמנא, Gat Šmānê, lit. "oil press") is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem most famous as the place where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion. According to Luke 22:43–44, Jesus' anguish in Gethsemane was so deep that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." According to the Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, Gethsemane is the garden where the Apostles buried the Virgin Mary.

Etymology

Gethsemane appears in the Greek of the Gospel of Matthew^[1] and the Gospel of Mark^[2] as γεθσημανη (gethsēmani). The name is derived from the Aramaic גת שמנא (Gaṯ-Šmānê), meaning "oil press".^[3] Matthew and Mark call it χωριον, a place or estate. The Gospel of John says Jesus entered a garden (κηπος) with his disciples.^[4]

Location

While tradition locates Gethsemane on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, the exact spot remains unknown. According to the New Testament it was a place that Jesus and his disciples customarily visited, which allowed Judas to find him on the night of his arrest. ^[5] Overlooking the garden is the Church of All Nations, also known as the Church of the Agony, built on the site of a church destroyed by the Sassanids in 614, and a Crusader church destroyed in 1219. Nearby is the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene with its golden, onion-shaped domes (Byzantine/Russian style), built by Russian Tsar Alexander III in memory of his mother.

Pilgrimage site

The Garden of Gethsemane was a focal site for early Christian pilgrims. It was visited in 333 by the anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", whose Itinerarium Burdigalense is the earliest description left by a Christian traveler in the Holy Land. In his Onomasticon, Eusebius of Caesarea notes the site of Gethsemane located "at the foot of the Mount of Olives", and he adds that "the faithful were accustomed to go there to pray". Ancient olive trees growing in the garden are said to be 900 years old. ^[6]

Artistic depictions

Andrea Mantegna's Agony in the Garden, circa 1460, depicts Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Detail from Gothic-era depiction of scene at Gethsemane from Ulm Münster

Gethsemane depicted by Pedro Berruguete

Christ in Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann at the Riverside Church

See also

• Agony in the Garden

References

• Metzeger, Bruce M. (ed); , Michael D. Coogan (ed) (1993). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504645-5. 

External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gethsemane

• HD Virtual tour, December 2007
• Virtual Tour of Jerusalem @ jerusalem360.com - Interactive Panoramas from Israel (requires Apple Quicktime)
• Catholic Encyclopedia on Gethsemane
• Paul’s Knowledge of the Garden of Gethsemane Narrative, by Christopher Price
• FotoTagger Annotated Galleries - Gethsemane in the art and reality
• Article on the history of the Russian monastery itself